Unlike simple job satisfaction, employee engagement reflects a deep commitment to an organisation’s or company’s goals, mission, purpose and values; encouraging employees to go “above and beyond” to ensure the success of the business or organisation.
What is the Role of Engagement in Success?
Engaged workforces are a proven driver of competitive advantage and financial performance. According to Gallup, highly engaged teams achieve:
- 23% higher profitability.
- 18% higher productivity in sales.
- 10% higher customer loyalty.
- 81% reduction in absenteeism.
- 18% to 43% lower turnover.
What are the Characteristics of Engaged Employees?
Engaged employees play an important role in shaping a positive workplace culture and supporting long-term success. When people feel connected to what they do, they tend to bring greater focus and creativity to their work. While engagement shows itself in different ways, there are some common traits often seen among engaged employees:
- Being completely aligned with a total understanding of how their roles reflects those the business or organisation’s larger mission, values and purpose.
- According to research, engaged employees demonstrate higher levels of creativity and idea contribution, with studies showing 59% report their job brings out their most creative ideas compared with just 3% of disengaged employees, and 74% share new ideas with customers compared with 13% of disengaged colleagues. source
- Far more likely to be able to adapt when faced with change.
- Willingness to go the “extra mile” without being asked.
What Drives of Engagement?
Research from the CIPD and Engage for Success identifies several “enablers” that organisations must foster:
- Strategic Narrative: Clear leadership that provides a compelling vision for the future.
- Engaging Managers: Leaders who coach and support employees rather than just managing tasks.
- Employee Voice: Open communication channels where staff feedback is heard and acted upon.
- Integrity: Alignment between an organisation’s stated values and its actual culture.
- Growth Opportunities: Clear pathways for professional development and career advancement.
What Tool Will Assist in Brining Employee Engagement About?
iMA is the answer
iMA recognises that there are four very distinct styles of communication and behaviour, each and every one of us is representative of one of the four styles, making us on the same wave length as 25% of the world’s population. iMA, which is a non-psychometric communication tool, calls the fours styles; High Red, High Yellow, High Green and High Blue. It is not just people who have an iMA colour, jobs also have iMA colours. If a company or organisation match the iMA colour jobs to the people of the corresponding iMA colour, they will have recruited an employee who is working at a job that they like and a job that they are good at. People are always good at jobs that they like and like jobs that they are good at. This allows them to flourish in their role while working alongside colleagues who feel exactly the same way about their own jobs. This goes a very long way to achieving a high level of employee engagement.
In addition to ensuring that all of the right people are in the right jobs; using iMA in a business or organisation teaches everyone how best to communicate with each other and with the clientele. The days of dealing with so called “difficult people” dissipates and relationships both internally and externally become smooth, easy and actually enjoyable. In turn this makes working in such an organisation equally as enjoyable and creates a happy and engaged workforce.
The following, very short, questionnaire will tell you which iMA colour you are. ashleyboroda-ima.com
To identify the iMA colour of a job, drop me a line at ashley@ashleyboroda.com
Employee engagement is not a given, it needs close attention and a huge dose of iMA to help make it happen.
